West Texas to New Mexico

We left Boerne on New Year's Day after a great five-day stay at Top of the Hill RV Resort. Our destination that day was Van Horn, TX, a distance of just under 400 miles. This is further than we usually drive in a day, but because the drive was westbound on I-10 through mostly plains and desert, the distance was easy to cover. We arrived at Van Horn around 4:00pm, and checked into Southern Star RV Park for the night. This is a typical southwestern desert park, with lots of room to maneuver and good utility hookups, and no grass in sight.

Cost was $12.50 for full hookups, including 50 amp electricity. The park was clean and spacious, and the owners were very friendly when we checked in.
 The town of Van Horn is similar to other West Texas desert towns. There is a main street lined with motels, gas stations and restaurants, and little else. People always seem to be friendly in these places, and are interested to hear about Canada.

We spent a comfortable night, and left in the morning at around 10:00am. Our destination was Deming, NM, a distance of 220 miles, and we would gain one hour as we entered the Mountain Time zone. Temperature when we left Van Horn was 31F, and there was very light freezing drizzle. I wasn't too concerned, as the ground and road surfaces were relatively warm, and there wasn't much danger of slippery roads, although I would certainly be on the lookout for ice.

We headed west on I-10, and gradually climbed to an altitude of 4800 feet, around the town of Sierra Blanca. The temperature dropped to 27F as we climbed, and fortunately the road surface was mostly dry.

I-10 near Sierra Blanca

As we got closer to the city of El Paso, the temperature rose above freezing, and we were within sight of the Mexico border, which we can be distinguished by the black fence running across the desert, about a mile from the highway, and parallel to it. We passed through El Paso in moderate traffic, as this was Saturday morning. Soon after El Paso, we reached the New Mexico state line, and pulled into the rest stop for a cup of Earl Grey tea and a short break.

Rest area at the NM state line

Soon we passed Las Cruces, where we have stayed overnight on previous trips. This time we decided to continue on to Deming, and try out Deming Roadrunner RV Park, which is Passport America. Ten miles west of Las Cruces, all westbound traffic passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint. We were waved through by a Border Patrol officer without being required to stop. We had our passports ready, just in case.

We arrived at Deming at 2:00pm.

Border Patrol station on I-10 west of Las Cruces